ST. MARK’S CATHOLIC SCHOOL – ADMISSIONS POLICY
SEPTEMBER 2017 ENTRY
As a Catholic school, we aim to provide a Catholic education for all our pupils. At a
Catholic school, Catholic doctrine and practice permeate every aspect of the school’s
activity. It is essential that the Catholic character of the school’s education is fully
supported by all families in the school. All applicants are therefore expected to give
their full, unreserved and positive support for the aims and ethos of the school.
The Governing Body will always accord the highest priority to Catholic applicants.
In recent years the school has been over subscribed with applications from practising
Catholic families.
‘Catholic’ means a member of a Church in full communion with the See of Rome.
This includes the Eastern Catholic Churches. This will normally be evidenced by a
Certificate of Baptism in a Catholic church or a Certificate of Reception into the full
communion of the Catholic Church.
Catholic practice is defined as weekly attendance at Sunday Mass (including the
Saturday Vigil Mass) over the previous two years and having received the sacrament
of Baptism. Evidence of these features of Catholic practice will be sought from a
Baptism certificate and the Certificate of Catholic Practice form.
The published admission number for the school is 186 pupils per year. Any
admissions in excess of this limit will cause overcrowding and be detrimental to the
quality of education provided.
Where there are more than 186 applications, they will be treated as follows:
Over Subscription Criteria
Category One:
Catholic “looked after” children and Catholic children who
have been adopted or made subject to child arrangement orders
or special guardianship orders.
Category Two:
Baptised Practising Catholic applicants.
Category Three:
Baptised Catholic applicants whose priest does not verify
Catholic practise.
1
Category Four:
Other looked after children and children who have been
adopted (or made subject to residence orders or special
guardianship orders).
Category Five:
Applicants from other Christian denominations whose practice
is supported by a religious leader. “Christian” for the purposes
of this policy means a member of one of the churches affiliated
to “Churches together in Britain and Ireland.”
Category Six:
Any other applicants.
Applicants in each category will be placed into groups, depending on the Deanery in
which they reside. A proportion of the places will be offered in each Deanery as
follows:
Hounslow Deanery
Hillingdon Deanery
Upper Thames Deanery
Ealing Deanery
54%
20%
13%
13%
In the event of oversubscription in each Category, the following criteria will be used
to place applicants in order of priority.
(a)
Those with a brother or sister (including step/half siblings) who will be
attending the school (including 6th Form) at the time of admission.
(b)
Those with a parent employed by the School for two or more years at the time
at which the application for admission is made.
(c)
Distance will be measured by computer software based on Ordnance Survey
and postal address data. The software measures using public roads and
footpaths adopted and recorded by Hounslow Council’s Highways Team.
When using roads for measurement purposes the software measures along the
middle of the road. It starts from a point in the footprint of the property
provided as the child’s address and continues by the shortest available route to
the nearest of the school gates which is used by pupils to enter the school
grounds. Blocks of flats are treated as one address. In blocks of flats, priority
will normally be given to the lowest flat number. Addresses in private roads
will measure from the footprint of the property, along the middle of the private
road leading to the public road/footpath as adopted and recorded by Hounslow
Highways Team. Not used are routes using common land(1), open spaces,
public parks, subways or footpaths not adopted by the Highways team(2).
(1)
Except the Chiswick Common footpath between the junction at
Chiswick Common Road and Turnham Green Terrace.
(2)
Except the pedestrian footpath at the eastern end of The Ride.
Where it is possible to offer places to all Category One and Two applicants in a
Deanery, the remaining places will be offered to Category Two applicants from the
remaining Deaneries in rotation so as to preserve the relative proportions identified
above.
2
If any places are still available after all Category One and Two applicants have been
offered places, Category Three to Six applicants will be allocated places using the
same Deanery quotas and criteria as applied to applicants in Category One and Two.
If twins or triplets are competing for one or two remaining places, Governors have
agreed to admit both/all applicants and exceed the Published Admissions Number.
In the event of a tie-break situation, where two or more applicants for the last
remaining place/s, have equal priority with equal distance measurements, lots will be
drawn to determine which applicant should be offered the place.
The admission of pupils with a statement of Special Educational Needs or Education,
Health and Care Plan (EHC) is dealt with by a completely separate procedure.
Details of this procedure are set out in the Special Educational Needs Code of
Practice. If your child has a Statement of SEN or EHC plan you must contact your
local authority SEN officer.
Application Procedure
To apply for a place at St. Mark’s School you should complete and return two
separate forms. The closing date is October 31st 2016. In order to make an
application you should complete the school’s supplementary Information Form
attached to this policy and return it to the Governors’ Admissions Panel via the school
office, together with all other relevant paperwork required for your application. You
must also complete a Common Application Form from your Local Authority and
return it to them as per their instructions.
Applications received after the closing date will be dealt with after the initial
allocation process has been completed.
Last year the school was heavily
oversubscribed and we were unable to offer places to all applicants in Category Two.
The Governing Body were not able to offer any places to applicants in Categories
Three to Six.
Notification letters will be sent out by the Local Authorities on behalf of the
Governors on March 1st 2017.
Right of Appeal
If an applicant is not offered a place at St. Mark’s, there is a right of appeal to an
Independent Appeals Committee set up in accordance with the provisions of the
School Standards & Framework Act 1998. Details of the procedure can be obtained
from the Clerk to the Governors at the School.
Children’s names are kept on a continuing interest list at the request of the parents
throughout the following Academic Year. Places on the continuing interest list will
be prioritised according to the admissions policy above. The allocation of any places
from the continuing interest list will seek to maintain the balance between the four
Deaneries, as identified above.
Sixth Form
An offer of a place in the Sixth Form is conditional on the following criteria being
met:
3
The school can provide a course suited to the applicant’s age, ability, aptitude and
educational needs. The School also requires applicants to have a positive behaviour
record.
Applicants will be required to have achieved at least 5 GCSE passes at grade C or
above including English and Mathematics; and
A GCSE grade B or higher in the individual subject they intend to pursue at A level,
with the exception of Mathematics where an A grade is required and Further
Mathematics where an A* in Mathematics is required.
If the subject was not studied at GCSE, students will be required to have achieved at
least a grade B in English (or a similar subject). Refer to the blue page in the
prospectus for the subject specific entry requirements. Please note GCSE equivalent
courses (ICT DiDA, OCR Science) will count as one of the 5 GCSE passes.
In addition to the places reserved for the School’s own students the Governors
propose to admit a minimum of 15 external students into the Sixth Form, subject to
the fulfilment of course requirements. In the case of oversubscription the main school
oversubscription criteria will apply.
In-Year Admissions
In-Year admissions are made to the Local Authority.
Applications for In-Year admissions are dealt with in the same way as those made
during the normal admissions round. If more applications are received than there are
places available then applications will be ranked by the governing body in accordance
with the oversubscription criteria. If a place cannot be offered at this time then you
may ask us for the reasons and you will be informed of your right of appeal. You will
be offered the opportunity of being placed on a waiting list. This waiting list will be
maintained by the governing body in the order of the oversubscription criteria and not
in the order in which the applications are received. Names are removed from the list
at the end of each academic year. When a place becomes available the governing
body will decide who is at the top of the list and the L.A. will send an offer letter.
Fair Access Protocols
The school is committed to taking its fair share of children who are vulnerable and/or
hard to place, as set out in locally agreed protocols. Accordingly, outside the normal
admissions round the governing body is empowered to give absolute priority to a
child where admission is requested under any local protocol that has been agreed by
both the Diocese and the governing body for the current school year. The governing
body has this power even when admitting the child would mean exceeding the
published admission number.
Definitions
‘Looked after child’ has the same meaning as in S.22 of the Children Act 1989, and
means any child in the care of a Local Authority or provided with accommodation by
them (e.g. children with foster parents at the time of making an application to the
school).
4
‘Adopted’ means any child who ceased to be looked after because they were adopted
and whose parents can give proof of this status.
‘Child Arrangements Order’ A child arrangements order is an order under the terms
of the Children Act 1989 s.8 settling the arrangements to be made as to the person
with whom the child is to live. Children “looked after” immediately before the order
is made qualify in this category.
‘Special Guardianship Order’ A special guardianship order is an order under the
terms of the Children Act 1989 s.14A which defines it as an order appointing one or
more individuals to be a child’s special guardian(s).
‘Special Guardianship Order’ A special guardianship order is an order under the
terms of the Children Act 1989 s.14A which defines it as an order appointing one or
more individuals to be a child’s special guardian(s).
‘Parent’ means the adult or adults with legal responsibility for the child.
‘Resident’ – A child is deemed to be resident at a particular address when he/she
resides there for more than 50% of the school week.
5